Low Loan Repayment Is Seen at For-Profit Schools. They attract weak students. No wonder they don’t pay back their loans. An education does not emerge magically from throwing a human body termed a “teacher” into a classroom and having them communicate with other human bodies termed “students.” For-profit colleges seem like the evolutionary mimics of the educational world.

1. The Hausergate article supports my nihilistic doubts about the academic racket: this stuff apparently goes on all the time. My econ nihilism got a nice boost too, when The Great Moderation turned into The Great Recession. Good times.

2. Some for-profit schools can work very well for people with specific work-oriented goals. My niece got a big boost from a few home-study Phoenix classes. Other schools are out-and-out fraud.

3. The US has two war parties. This has been true since 1948. Many Democratic voters fail to realize this. The military has such deep roots everywhere that it’s unlikely that they will ever come under civilian control. The last president to defy the military was Truman.

Billare

I have no idea why you labeled the Melody character’s post “must-read on ‘Hausergate'”. In fact, it strikes me as rather libelous. She tells two personal anecdotes that we only have her word to take on; but psychology is a very broad field. I’ve read it twice, and I believe nowhere does she indicate why those stories bear on Hauser in particular — indeed, I kept waiting for the “bomb” to drop in her story, say for AE/”the editor” to be revealed as Hauser, but it never came. In fact the entire thing is almost like a non sequitur; how exactly are the malfeasances she claim and Hauser’s alleged ethical lapses connected?

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp Razib Khan

there’s a distinction between a legal context, and the facts you should take into account to make a bet based on probability. in a legal context we should withhold judgement. but in the real world of prediction the ubiquity (or lack thereof) by big names in this domain is relevant.

John Emerson

I understood her to be saying that Hauser was just the tip of an iceberg, and that there are many other such cases in psychology and other fields. I just reread the piece and while I see how someone might possibly think that she was slyly alleging that Hauser did all these other bad things too, I think that’s a misreading.

I’ve told the story before of my friends who did stats for researchers and were appalled by their sloppiness and ignorance. They didn’t mention fraud.

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About Razib Khan

I have degrees in biology and biochemistry, a passion for genetics, history, and philosophy, and shrimp is my favorite food. In relation to nationality I'm a American Northwesterner, in politics I'm a reactionary, and as for religion I have none (I'm an atheist). If you want to know more, see the links at http://www.razib.com